Project Summary This project will bring together eleven speakers for a one-day symposium on the Integrative Biology of Sensory Hair Cells. Sensory hair cells are mechano-sensory cells that respond to sound, gravity, acceleration, and water pressure in vertebrate animals. In humans, they are necessary for hearing and for vestibular function, and developmental defects or later loss of function are a major cause of deafness and impairment of postural stability and the ability to stand or walk. The speakers are expert investigators in their fields. The symposium will take place at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, which will be held on January 3-7, 2018 in San Francisco, California. The purpose of the symposium is to promote dialogue and exchange of ideas among investigators who would not ordinarily be speaking at the same symposium. This project includes investigators who study the evolution of sensory hair cells, the development of those cells, and the physiological mechanisms that allow those cells to function. Proceedings of the symposium will be published in the peer-reviewed journal, Integrative and Comparative Biology.